


It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas: An Avengers Christmas 5+1

by Groot_Is_God



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers Family, Avengers Tower, Christmas, Christmas Decorations, Christmas Lights, Christmas Presents, Christmas Shopping, Domestic Avengers, Gen, Natasha Romanov Doesn't Like Shopping All That Much, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Parker Luck™️, Peter Parker Doesn't Understand Yoga, Peter Parker is a Mess, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Tony Stark, Pure Peter Parker, Shopping Malls, Stark Tower, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Yoga
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:00:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21912568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Groot_Is_God/pseuds/Groot_Is_God
Summary: 5 times Peter Parker tries to celebrate Christmas to its fullest but it doesn't quite work and 1 time his family is there to make the season bright.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Natasha Romanov, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 10
Kudos: 40





	1. Tony and the Falling Christmas Lights

“Peter, why did Friday alert me that you’re on the side of the tower?” Tony asked, his voice sounding slightly muffled through Karen’s speakers. Peter noted that he should probably fix that, but there’s no way he’s going to remember to do that.

Peter rolls his eyes and grins. “Well, maybe because I’m on the side of the tower…”

He can hear Tony’s exasperated sigh through the speaker and can imagine him pinching the bridge of his nose. “No shit, why are you on the side of my tower?”

“Come out and see.” Peter said, smiling and hanging up. He climbed up towards the landing pad and grabbed another box before going back to the spot he was working.

A scoff of disbelief sounded from above him. “Are you putting up Christmas lights?” Tony asked, sounding a mix between exasperated and confused.

“It’s Christmas season Mr. Stark! Where’s your holiday cheer!” Peter exclaimed, pulling up the front of his mask to look at his mentor.

“I don’t do holidays.” Tony retorted, raising his eyebrows slightly.

“Ms. Potts says otherwise. She said you even have a stocking for Jarvis.” Peter said, grinning. Pepper had also told him about the giant bunny Tony had gotten her for Christmas one year that was currently collecting dust in a storage closet on the 37th floor.

Tony rolled his eyes and cracked a small smile. “Whatever kid.”

Peter used a super sticky and weather resistant variation of his web-fluid to stick the light stand to the building, a formula he’d created just for this purpose, and climbed back to the landing dock. He sat on the edge of the landing, not too far from Tony’s feet, and opened up another box of string lights.

“You realize this is going to take forever right?” Tony said, crouching down to be at Peter’s level.

“Yep.” Peter dumped the lights from the box, careful that the directions and the box didn’t fall down. That’d be littering and that would be bad. He turned around and looked at Tony as an idea sparked in his mind. “It’d go a lot faster if I had some help.”

Tony laughed and shook his head. “Nope, not happening. Have fun Christmasing and let me know when you’ve accepted defeat and want to come in for some hot chocolate.”

Peter shrugged, climbing back down the building to connect the new strand of lights. When he made it up for another box, Tony was gone.

…

In the three hours since Friday had alerted Tony to Peter’s Christmas decorating, he’d managed to light about a third of the tower. It looked _really_ cool, like beyond Star Wars level of coolness which was hard to surpass.

But with all great things comes a downfall, this one being he was really tired. Peter, thanks to the spider bite, had really great stamina but everyone reaches the point of tiredness, even enhanced spider teenagers, and after climbing up and down the tower for a couple of hours, Peter had hit his point.

“Hey kiddo.” Tony called. Peter looked up and saw the engineer laying on the landing dock, his head sticking out over the side. The view reminded Peter a little eerily of a floating head but he pushed that thought out of his head.

“Hey Mr. Stark!” Peter responded, tugging the front of his mask up. “Decide to come out and experience the Christmas cheer?”

Tony barked a laugh. “Nope. Just come to see how your frozen butt’s doing.”

Peter shrugged. “Not too bad, there’s still a lot to do though, it’s- “The strand of lights slipped out of Peter’s hand and he stopped talking, reaching out to grab the lights.

He stretched his arm, the lights falling quickly, and caught them before realizing that he’d reached too far and was now falling down the side of the tower.

 _Stay calm, you’ve fallen off buildings before. Just use your webshooters._ Peter thought immediately. He extended his ring and middle fingers, activating his webshooters. A strand shot out and connected to the building, he stopped falling for a split second, but the web was too short to support his weight. All it really did was cause him to slam headfirst into a window before continuing to fall towards the pavement.

An image of himself splattered on the ground like a bug flashed through his mind. “Mr. Stark?” Peter squeaked. The image was kind of funny, but he _really_ didn’t want to be squashed like a bug.

Peter’s body slams into something metal, stopping his descent. The Ironman suit’s propulsors whirred and the suit squeaked, and Tony’s mask lifted up to reveal his worried and exasperated face.

“No more Christmas lights.” Tony commanded sternly, looking Peter directly in the eyes.

…

Peter held an icepack to a nicely formed bruise on his forehead. His impromptu trip down the side of the tower hadn’t _really_ required a trip to medbay, but Mr. Stark hadn’t wanted to risk getting an earful from Aunt May.

Which was why Peter was currently sitting on a bed while Bruce fretted around him shaking his head.

“I don’t detect any serious damage.” Bruce said, confirming what Peter already knew. “But Peter, why were you on the side of the building alone?”

“Tony didn’t want to decorate for Christmas.” Peter explained.

Bruce shook his head and muttered something about superheroes having no sense of self preservations and Christmas spirit before going back up to his lab. Peter just shrugged and kept icing his bruise.

And despite Tony’s lack of Christmas spirit, Peter smiled when he saw the entire tower lit up with Christmas lights, making it look like a giant candy cane when he left to walk home.


	2. Natasha and The Shopping Expedition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter and Nat go present shopping at the mall but not everything goes to plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realize that it's now not only after Christmas but also after New Years but I'm still going to keep writing this anyways. The Christmas spirit does not end at Christmas, especially when one does not have time to write due to the holiday so one cannot write about the holiday.

Peter swung into the gym, head on a swivel looking for a certain red-headed Avenger. Perched on the head of a body shaped standing punching bag he scanned the different sections of the large room. Treadmills, weights, obstacle course, hanging Peter course (when Tony had built it for him, he’d called it the Peter course and the name just stuck), matted area- Bingo.

Nat was stretched out on a purple yoga mat in some sort of yoga move that Peter had no idea what the name of it was. Downward dog? Warrior? Wait- the warrior one had numbers after it. Warrior 1? 2? 3? They’d done yoga in gym class for a day a couple weeks ago, but Peter had been out of school with 4 broken ribs and a mild concussion- Mr. Stark had _not_ been happy with him about that. It hadn’t even been his fault either! It’s not like he had expected the bad guy with the funny clown mask to throw him into a hard brick wall and then off the side of a tall building.

But even if he had been in class, there was no guarantee he’d remember the names. Obscure facts that no one really needs to ever actually know? He’s your guy, but yoga? Nope.

Nat’s head tilted in his direction slightly as he approached, inviting him to join her. Peter shrugged; he’d done yoga before with May at the yoga studio she frequented (she’d started going after learning about Spidey as a way to destress) but he wasn’t all that good at it. He’d always been too hyperactive to fully concentrate on the moves, finding it more annoying and slightly stressful than relaxing.

Nat turned her head to him and nodded down at the yoga mat next to her insistently. Peter slipped off his sneakers and copied Nat, standing on all fours with his butt in the air like a camel.

“Stand and reach your hands up to the ceiling.” Nat instructed. Peter followed along, inching his hands backwards towards his socks and standing upright before lifting his hands up. They moved through a series of motions, putting their hands together and bringing them towards the heart, standing sideways with the front knee bent and reaching their hands out, one that made Peter feel a bit like a snake. He was really happy he’d worn sweatpants; jeans would _not_ have made some of the movements possibly. After what seemed like ages they sat crisscross, meditating.

Peter closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on his breathing but all he could think of was his little Christmas dilemma, the whole reason he’d tried to find Nat in the first place. He opened his eyes and opened his mouth before faltering. He didn’t want to interrupt Nat’s meditation, but at the same time he needed to talk to her.

He sat in an awkward silence, the only noise being their breathing and the soft sound of rainfall coming from Nat’s phone. Finally, after what seemed like ages Nat opened her eyes and smiled at him.

“Thanks for joining me маленький паук.” Nat said, stretching out before standing up. She kneeled on the floor at the end of her mat, rolling it up while glancing up at him. “But as much as I enjoyed doing yoga with you, it doesn’t quite seem like what you really wanted to be doing. What do you need?”

Peter grinned as he knelt to roll up his mat. “I need you to go to the mall with me.”

Natasha glanced up at him, an amused look forming on her face. “You need me, the one woman who doesn’t actually _enjoy_ shopping, to go shopping with you?”

Peter felt his face grow warm. God- he was probably blushing so badly right now. “Yes.” He said, voice faltering slightly.

“Why me?” Nat asked, grinning as she finished rolling up her mat. She looked up at him, waiting patiently for a response.

Peter sighed and sat back on his heels, his mat unfurling slightly as he let go of it, counting on his fingers as he spoke. “May took a double shift at the hospital so he coworker could go home to Michigan for Christmas, Clint’s at the farm with his family, Pepper’s in meetings all day, the last time I went to the mall with Tony we left with 10 times more then we needed plus he’d too well known to be low key, Steve would make a big deal over the fact I want to buy MJ a necklace and would give me the safe sex speech again- yuck, malls stress Dr. Banner out, and Bucky’s in Wakanda visiting T’Challa and Shuri.” Peter paused, taking a deep breath after giving his whole little spiel without breathing. “Plus, I like to hang out with you, and I think going to the mall would be fun.”

He looked up at Natasha who looked about ready to burst out laughing. Peter rolled his eyes slightly and waited for her to respond, a smile betraying his lips as he rerolls his mat and secured it.

“Yes, I’ll go to the mall with you. Let me go get changed and I’ll meet you in the lobby.” Nat agreed, standing and walking away, dropping her mat in a bin near the weights. Peter noticed her shoulders shaking slightly in silent laughter as the elevator door closed, blocking her from view.

“Step one done, now I just have to actually go buy everything.” Peter said aloud, dropping his own mat in the bin and letting Friday take him up to the common floor.

…

The Westfield World Trade Center was like an underground city full of bustling people, tourists and new Yorkers alike, all captured in the business of Christmas and in particular, Christmas shopping.

“Where to first?” Nat asked, peering over Peter’s shoulder for a look at his list. They were walking down the main mall hallway, passing a Forever 21

Peter held the list to his chest before she could catch a glimpse of it. “You can’t look, your present is on here too.”

Nat rolled her eyes but didn’t bother him again. Peter studied his list, trying to choose what to buy first. He could go to Pandora and see if they had a necklace with a little book charm, or go to the Lego Store and get Ned a new Starwars set, or get May one of those Instant Pots she keeps talking about wanting but then saying how she doesn’t really need it.

“I think we’ll start at…” Peter trailed off as he looked up at Natasha who- wasn’t there. Great, he’d managed to lose the one person who he’d assumed would be the hardest to lose. He spun around, searching the crowd for the red-headed assassin. He took out his cell phone, shoving his list back into his pocket. About to hit the call button when- there!

He spotted her back by the Forever 21 entrance, where she’d tried to steal a look at his list. Rolling his eyes, he pushed through the crowd as he walked upstream, apologizing to people as he accidentally ran into them.

“If you really wanted to see my list that badly you could have- “Peter cut himself off abruptly as he noticed Nat’s body language. She was staring intently across the large hallway, her face still, almost as if she was on a mission. Her lips were moving slightly but not saying anything like she was reading lips. Her hand hovered over her side where Peter knew a gun was holstered.

“Nat?” Peter asked quiet but urgent. Something wasn’t right, but he didn’t see trouble in the direction she was looking. All that was over there was Sunglasses Hut, a pretzel place, and- oh, Zales. Whatever the issue was, it probably had something to do with Zales.

“2 men, probably armed, large duffle bags entered Zales approximately 1 minute ago. Chances are they’re going to rob the place and have a backup plan if someone tries to catch them.” Nat reported, turning to look Peter dead in the eye. “Do you have your suit?”

“Yeah, always.” Peter responded immediately, gesturing to the backpack on his back.

Nat nodded and pressed a button on what appear to be bracelets, but Peter knows they’re actually her widow bites, just a disguised version Tony made for her. “Turn your coms on to the private channel 2, wouldn’t want to disrupt any official business on the public ones and I have no interest in hearing Tony chatter on channel 1.”

Peter snorted and scanned the hall for the nearest bathroom. He shot Nat a thumbs up before running to the bathroom, apologizing to the other shoppers who he actually did run into this time instead of slightly bump. He changed into his suit, webbing his backpack onto the ceiling. Hopefully people would see the webs and assume that they shouldn’t mess with it because either it was Spiderman’s and he’s a superhero or it belongs to a giant spider and they could get webbed like the bag and caught like a fly.

“Hey Karen, connect me to private like 2 please.” Peter requested, swinging out of the bathroom and ignoring the cries and shouts of other shoppers as they see Spiderman. So much for being stealthy.

“Well, now the whole mall knows we’re here.” Nat commented, her voice coming in clear through his suit.

“Sorry. What’s the plan?”

“You crawl in undetected, try not to make a scene like you just did by swinging out of the bathroom over people’s heads, and web them up. I’ll come in and shock them if necessary, no killing only detaining.”

Peter nodded, despite the fact Nat couldn’t see him. He narrowed his eyes, focusing in on the store. One guy was standing at the counter, while the other must have been in the backroom with the workers because he wasn’t visible. From an outsiders viewpoint the scene looked completely normal, if you didn’t notice the stiff way the man was standing and how his hand rested on a gun holstered at his waist.

Peter swung to the floor right next to the entrance. He glanced around him but didn’t see Nat. A little boy tried to let go of his mother’s hand to come and say hello, but Peter shook his head and waved in a ‘no’ gesture. The mother gripped the boy’s hand tighter, pulling the child away. Peter memorized the child’s face and decided to go and find him once this was all over.

He shot a web at the ceiling and silently crawled over to the robber, until he was right above him. The man seemed to have no idea that Spiderman was lurking above him which was great because all it took for Peter to restrain him then were a few well place webs and he was stuck to the countertop.

But apparently Parker LuckTM still reigns supreme because as soon as the man is webbed someone from out in the mall yelled “Spiderman” at the top of their lungs, loud enough that it _definitely_ could be heard in the back room. Peter cursed and jumped back to the ceiling.

The other man came barreling out of the back room, a wild look in his eyes as he held out a gun in front of him. Screams of terror came from the hallway and the gunman turned in their direction. “We’re getting out of here _now_ or I’ll shoot.”

Peter shot a web from his spot on the ceiling and yanked the gun away, webbing it to the wall, just as Nat popped out from behind a case and hit him with her widow bites. She stepped back, now holding the duffle bags, leaving space for Peter to web the man to the floor.

The bystanders in the hallways cheered and clapped, now forming a crowd around the Zales entrance.

“I could have taken him myself.” Peter said, taking the bags from Natasha and looking into them.

“Yeah, but I couldn’t let you have _all_ the fun.” Natasha responded; the corner of her lips twitched up into a smile. “Come on, let’s go find security, I don’t want to leave these guys here for too long.”

Peter handed the bags to an employee who came out of the back room. They looked fine, just in a bit of shock from the whole experience. “Yeah, in a minute, there’s something I have to do first.”

…

“So, then I went and searched the mall for the little boy that had tried to come and see me, and I gave him a high five and let his mom take some pictures.” Peter explained, taking a bite of his pizza.

They’d picked up some pizzas on their way back to the tower after shopping, which everyone was now gathered around. Peter told them about their entire trip to the mall, but something was nagging him in the back of his mind, something that they’d forgotten.

Sam whistled, impressed, while Steve turned to Nat. “What’d you do while Peter was talking to the boy?”

Nat shrugged. “I went and found security, led them back to the store. They ended up calling the police to come and take care of the guys.”

Tony, who had somehow miraculously stayed silent up to this point, turned to Peter, a mixture of curiosity and amusement clear on his face. “So, with all the excitement that happened, you must have gotten some pretty sweet gifts.”

Suddenly it hit him. The thing they’d forgotten. Peter stopped midbite and put his slice of pizza down, smacking his forehead with his hand.

“Peter?” Tony asked, concerned.

“We forgot to buy the presents!”

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Kudos give me life!
> 
> Check out my tumblr @ groot-is-god.tumblr.com


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